In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Beneficent
Before your time We never sent a messenger without having revealed to him that there is no deity other than Me. Therefore, you shall worship Me alone.
"They say: ‘The Most Gracious has taken to Himself a son!’ Limitless is He in His glory! No; they are but His honored servants. They do not speak until He has spoken, and they act at His behest.
He knows all that lies before them and all behind them. They do not intercede for any but those whom He has already graced with his goodly acceptance, since they themselves stand in reverent awe of Him."
If any of them were to say, ‘I am a deity besides Him,’ We shall requite him with hell. Thus do We reward the wrongdoers.
Are the unbelievers unaware that the heaven and the Earth were once one single entity, which We then parted asunder? We have indeed made out of water every living thing. Will they not, then, believe? (The Prophets: 21: 25-30)
So far the Surah has been emphasizing the concept of God’s oneness, refuting the arguments of the unbelievers in support of their false claims of multiple deities. It has shown that these false claims can have no supporting evidence based on all that exists in the universe or on any information given in the scriptures containing earlier Divine messages. The unbelievers are challenged to come up with any convincing evidence in support of their claims. No such evidence will ever be presented, because none exists.
Now the Surah states the nature of what was revealed to all messengers sent to different communities before Prophet Muhammad’s time: "Before your time We never sent a messenger without having revealed to him that there is no deity other than Me.
Therefore, you shall worship Me alone." God’s oneness is indeed the basic essential element in Divine faith, ever since God sent His first messenger to mankind. Nothing has changed in that. God, the Creator who must be worshipped is one, without partners. The truth of Godhead and Lordship over the universe is one whole that cannot be split up. No partners of God can be claimed, whether in the sphere of Godhead or in that of worship. This fact ranks along the basic essential laws of the universe and is classified with them. Like them, its truth is unassailable.
The Surah then picks up the claims of the unbelievers alleging that God has a son. This is one of the absurdities of ignorance: "They say: ‘The Most Gracious has taken to Himself a son!’ Limitless is He in His glory! No; they are but His honored servants. They do not speak until He has spoken, and they act at His behest. He knows all that lies before them and all behind them.
They do not intercede for any but those whom He has already graced with his goodly acceptance, since they themselves stand in reverent awe of Him. If any of them were to say, ‘I am a deity besides Him,’ We shall requite him with hell. Thus do We reward the wrongdoers."
The claim that God — limitless is He in His glory — has a son took several forms in different communities that deviated from the path of the truth. The pagan Arabs alleged that the angels were God’s daughters, while unbeliever groups among the Jews alleged that Ezra was son of God. On the other hand, deviant Christians allege that Jesus Christ is son of God. All these are ignorant claims that deviate from the clear truth in different times of history and in different forms.
What is clear is that the Surah is particularly concerned here with the Arabs claim that the angels were God’s daughters. This claim is rebuffed by a clarification of the nature of the angels. They are not God’s female offspring, as the Arabs alleged. Rather, they are only His servants whom He has honored. The angels do not suggest anything to God, because they know their limits and abide by them. They do what God bids them, without argument. God’s knowledge encompasses all their affairs. They do not try to intercede on behalf of anyone other than those to whom He has gracefully granted His acceptance. Only on behalf of these does He accept intercession. By nature, the angels are in awe of God, revering Him, even though they are pure, honored and obedient to Him. Needless to say, none of them ever makes a claim to Godhead. Had any of them, for argument’s sake, made such a claim, he would have suffered the same fate as anyone else who makes such a claim. That fate is hell where everyone guilty of the worst type of wrongdoing, which is to make such a claim which runs against all right and is unjust to all creation.
The same applies to the false claims of the unbelievers. It is a hollow and absurd claim, made by no rational human being. Should anyone make such a claim, the same terrible fate would be in store for him.
The Surah contrasts the scene of the angels in their obedience to God, and their reverent awe of Him, with that of unbelievers making such absurd and impudent claims. The Surah has so far given us several types of evidence drawn from the universe, all testifying to God’s oneness, and stated a number of arguments denying any possibility of there being more than one God.
It has also provided some evidence that addresses people’s hearts. Now the Surah takes the human heart by the hand to contemplate some of the great phenomena in the universe, as it is wisely managed by God. Yet the unbelievers remain heedless of the clear signs it shows everywhere. In the universe there are aspects that leave our minds in total amazement when we contemplate them with an open heart and alert senses.
"Are the unbelievers unaware that the heaven and the Earth were once one single entity, which We then parted asunder? We have indeed made out of water every living thing. Will they not, then, believe?
The statement that the heavens and the Earth have been split apart after having been a single entity is worth much contemplation. The more advanced theories of astronomy seeking to explain universal phenomena always tend to support this truth stated in the Qur’an over 1400 years ago.
The theory that wins most acceptance today is that which claims that star constellations, such as our solar system which includes the sun, its planets and moons including the Earth, our planet Earth and its moon, were originally nebula. The nebula was then rent asunder and its parts took their circular shapes. The Earth was also a piece of the sun that separated from it and cooled down.
However, this is merely an astronomical theory which may be fashionable today, but could be proven false tomorrow, only to be replaced by another assumption that may be felt suitable to explain universal phenomena. It thus gives birth to a different theory. We, as believers, do not try to interpret a Qur’anic statement in terms of a theory which is far from certain. We take Qur’anic statements as they are.
We will discuss this further next week, God willing.
